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SUMMARY:Predicting the Past: Filling in the Gaps of the Palaeontological R
 ecord - Jeroen Smaers
DTSTART:20090210T131500Z
DTEND:20090210T140000Z
UID:TALK16451@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Moritz Baumstark
DESCRIPTION:How do we reconstruct the evolutionary past of things that do 
 not fossilize? Can we find out how ‘intelligent’ ancestral primates we
 re simply by looking at contemporary variation? Can we reconstruct when ex
 actly the foundations of human intelligence were built in our primate evol
 utionary history?\nPhylogenetic comparative methods of ancestral reconstru
 ction allow us to map characters onto the ancestral nodes of a family tree
  based only on contemporary variation. This allows a unique view into our 
 evolutionary past\, surpassing what can be inferred from the palaeontologi
 cal record. This talk will explore different ways of modelling our evoluti
 onary history giving us insight into the timing of crucial evolutionary ev
 ents and the tempo of evolution of variables associated with human and pri
 mate ‘intelligence’. 
LOCATION:Entertaining Room\, Darwin College
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